Suspending Reality (29 page)

“Val, we’re trying to help you,” I said.

“I’m going to bite Lucas,” she said. “He’d better watch out because I’m pretty hungry.”

“No you’re not!” I said.

“I repeat, suspect is armed and dangerous,” Val said. “All Philly PD units be advised; suspect is armed and dangerous! I need backup immediately.”

Nick gripped her arms from behind. “Quick! Do it!”

She let out a long growl a moment before Lucas pierced her skin, injecting her with the serum as she thrashed about, calling him every name in the book. I knew it was a temporary fix, but we had to do what we could to keep Val sane and calm. She was starting to get weird again with all that growling and hissing, just like back at the grocery store. It was for her own good, and I knew if she could think straight, she would’ve agreed with me.

Val’s eyes fluttered shut as she slumped back into Nick’s arms.

“Okay, she’s out cold,” Lucas said. “I didn’t know a girl could even talk like that. Where did she learn that kind of language?”

“She was a police officer back in Philly. Couldn’t you tell from the cop lingo?”

“I seriously thought she just watched too many cop shows on TV.” Lucas grinned. “If she had her gun, I bet she’d have shot me dead.”

“Lucky for you, Nick disarmed her earlier,” I said.

“Did you see the hate in her eyes?” Lucas asked.

“C’mon, man. She can’t help it. She’s not herself. She’s just mad that you dragged her out of our parents’ house and threw her in jail, and now you just injected her with something.”

“Yeah, I put her in jail, but I was just following orders!” he said. “And did she forget I helped you get her out? Without me, you wouldn’t have gotten anywhere! She’d be dead right now.”

Reloading my gun, I smiled. “Yeah, we’ll remind her about that later, but right now, she’s kind of grumpy.”

Nick rested his rifle on his shoulder. “Yeah, really grumpy.”

“Zombifying will do that to a girl.” I slipped my weapon into my holster.

I looked up at the towering pines along the road. The jungle-like ground was covered in a blanket of green ferns and colorful wildflowers. “You guys keep watch, and I’ll change the tire,” I said. A gust of cool morning air brushed through my hair. For a quick second, I considered getting a jacket, but I just wanted to get the heck outta here.

Lucas nodded and took off after Nick. I watched them with my weapon aimed, making sure I had their backs. Glass and metal crushed beneath their feet, the sound reverberating in the early morning.

Half the distance in, my brother turned and waited until I had caught up with him, then grabbed my arm. “Just a sec.”

“What?” I asked, following his line of vision as he scanned the area. As I gazed around myself, it made me think I was living in a dead world of chaos and twisted metal. I wondered what had happened to the drivers and their companions.
Are they dead? Turned into lost souls who never asked for that kind of sorry existence? Souls who were never given a choice, just handed a monstrous fate?
I stared at an empty baby seat still strapped in the car and tried not to think about what had happened. There was no dried blood, so I hoped that meant the people were able to get away in time. It sure was a different world out there; my brother was right about that. Back home, I’d had no idea how bad it was. Now I was getting a taste of it firsthand. I wondered if the people out there even knew about the safe cites around the U.S.
Maybe the government should have a rescue mission to help those who are still stuck out here in this disease-ridden place.

“All’s clear.” My brother motioned for me to continue, and we reached the Jeep in no time.

Sure enough, the rear passenger-side tire was flat as a black rubber pancake. I grabbed a jack out of the trunk while Nick fetched the spare. The girls stood at the rear of the car and kept watch. They both offered to help, but I assured them we had it under control. I placed the jack under the side of the Jeep and hooked the crank to it, then started cranking it up.

“It’s so freaky out here,” Nick said. “What a place to break down. I don’t like it. There’s no visibility.”

“Me neither.” Thick fog swirled around everywhere, putting my overactive imagination into play.

“Don’t worry,” Lucas said. “I’m keeping a close eye out. Kind of reminds me of a Stephen King novel though. Remember the one where a thick mist descends from the mountains to cloak the land in fog?”

Nick chuckled. “Yeah. I saw that movie, and now’s not the time for a recap. Creatures lurking in the mist? They’re real, and they’re called zombies. You can’t scare me with that Stephen King crap. I’ve seen worse than that movie in real life.”

“You’re not kidding,” Lucas said, nudging me. “Hey, we aren’t scaring you, are we?”

Their chitchat wasn’t exactly settling my nerves, but I wasn’t going to admit it. I set my jaw and rolled the bad tire out of the way, muttering, “Just keep a lookout, okay?”

“Sure,” he said. Just as I glanced up at him, Lucas suddenly threw his head back and pointed his gun into the trees. “There’s something up there. See it, Nick?”

Nick stepped closer and peered into the overgrown vegetation. “Yeah, I think I see it, but I’m not sure what it is.”

I tilted my head to look at a black patch of shadow in the trees. I had no idea what it was, and frankly, I wasn’t keen on finding out. The mist and eerie silence added to the scary atmosphere and made us feel like we were on pins and needles. “We better hightail it outta here,” I whispered. “If whatever that is gets a good glimpse of us, it might decide it wants to join our little crew—for dinner.”

“It’s probably nothing,” my brother said, “but let’s hurry up, just in case.”

I didn’t like the “just in case” part. Rubbing a hand over my face, I let out a breath to calm my nerves, then focused back on the tire.

“Hey, I got a good look,” Nick said. “It’s only a deer foraging for food so you have nothing to worry about.”

“Good,” I said, relieved.

The Jeep door slammed behind us.

Groaning inwardly, I looked up at Val dashing down the street toward us.

“What are you doing here?” Nick growled.

Ignoring him, she wiped her forehead with her sleeve. “I can smell it.” Her nostrils flared as she sniffed the breeze that washed over us, as though to prove her point.

“Get back in the car, Val,” my brother said. “We got this.”

“The smell’s getting stronger by the minute,” she said.

“Okay, I’ll bite,” Lucas said. “What smell?”

She spun in a slow circle, sniffing the air like a dog. “Death, terror, affliction, torment, horror—”

“Way to use a thesaurus, Val, but you’re tinkering a little in the dark side there,” Lucas said.

She met his gaze as the sunlight reflected in her eyes, giving her an eerie glow. “One of humanity’s greatest fears is the terror of death. You better flee while you can, because the living dead are on their way!”

Lucas nudged me. “She always so dramatic?” His tone was nonchalant, but I could tell her words were getting to him from the way his gaze scanned the area around us.

I shrugged. “How much longer before that shot starts working?”

“Maybe a few hours.”

I nodded. “Good. The faster, the better.”

Val walked a few steps closer to the forest. “There’s more than one.”

“Your sister’s kind of freaking me out,” Claire said, pacing around the Jeep as her gaze scanned the trees around us.

“She’s hallucinating,” Nick said.

“I’m keeping a close eye out,” Jackie said. “Just in case she isn’t.”

Val spun around. Spots of decaying flesh mottled her once perfect skin. Thin flaps of greenish skin peeled from her face. Her bloodshot eyes met mine. “They’re coming,” she hissed.

I swear she looked like she was possessed. I tried to ignore her and tighten another lug nut.

Lucas patted me on the shoulder. “Focus, okay? She’s hallucinating. Nothing’s coming.”

“Lucas is right,” Nick said. “It’s all in her head.”

“I’m going to call this in,” Val said. “We’ll need backup and medics on the scene as soon as possible. How could anyone have survived such a horrible pileup? Have you checked for survivors?”

“Let’s get her back in the Jeep,” Nick said.

She shot him a look. “Bite me.”

“Please, Val. You need rest,” Nick said gently.

“No! And why are you looking at me like that? It’s my face, isn’t it? It is! I can’t help the botched-up chemical peel.”

Nick gently grabbed her arm. “Come on. Let’s get you a bottle of water from the Jeep.”

She yanked her arm away. “Listen, Sergeant, just because you took my badge and gun, that doesn’t mean I can’t fight as a civilian. They’re coming! Don’t you smell them? I do!”

Nick ran a hand through his hair, seemingly frustrated.

“Play by her rules,” I whispered. “It might help.”

He moistened his lips and nodded, then turned back to her. “As your commanding officer, I order you to get back in the patrol car so we can drive back to the station. I’ll expect a full report.”

“You’re a dirty cop, and I’m going to prove it. I saw you taking a bribe from a major drug dealer, and then you had me raid that house, where a million bullets happened to come my way. In case you haven’t learned by now, I’m hard to kill.” Her voice thundered. “I’ll spend the rest of my life taking you down. You’re going to regret the day you messed with me.”

Jackie and Claire suddenly yelled for us to get back in the Jeep. Out of nowhere, six or so zombies moaned and broke through the thick blanket of fog. Val’s nose told no lies.

“We can handle a few zombies, right?” Nick asked casually as he aimed to make his famous lethal headshot.

“Oh yeah. No problem. Dean, you done?” Lucas asked calmly over his shoulder.

“Almost!”

“Just hurry!” Claire said.

Gunshots echoed as they all fired away.

My hands trembled.
Get it together. Concentrate!
I tightened another lug nut.

“It’s not just a few. More are coming!” Lucas shouted. “Dean, that looks good enough to me. Let’s roll!”

I scrambled to my feet. A zombie in a torn suit walked toward me, his head leaning to one side. He had a metal rod protruding from his head, and bite marks ran across his green arms and neck. Behind him and out of the fog, more zombies stumbled toward us.

Val jumped straight into their path, with no weapon. “I’m going to arrest every single one of these sorry thugs. You have the right to remain silent…” The girl had guts. She started taking one down with her bare hands, using impressive karate chops and lethal roundhouse kicks like in those old Kung Fu movies. She sent the zombie rolling across the asphalt. If I hadn’t been so utterly terrified, I’d have been cheering her on.

Nick grabbed me by the upper arm. “Let’s go! Who has the keys?”

“Me.” Claire jammed her hands down her pockets and whipped them out. Jumping into the front seat, she tried to start the Jeep, but it just clicked when she turned the key. “It won’t start!”

“What?” Jackie asked in a frantic tone. “You’re kidding, right?”

“No!”

“Let me try then.” Jackie pushed her aside and turned the key.

The engine spluttered but didn’t start. It wasn’t good, because I knew we’d never make it to the other Jeep without being mauled to death.

Nick covered Lucas while he popped open the hood to see what the problem was.

“There doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with it,” Lucas yelled over the gunfire.

“Have you checked the belt?” I yelled back, firing away, hoping to stall the zombies until Lucas could fix the Jeep.

“Negative.”

I frowned as I tried to focus on doing two things at the same time. I knew a bit about cars—not quite as much as Lucas, but enough to possibly be helpful. I thought if I could take a peek under the hood, maybe we could figure it out together and get the thing up and running again.

Jackie stood close by, with a determined look on her face. She wasn’t the best marksman yet, but she was going to stand next to me and help me fight. I admired that. If there had only been two or three zombies, I would’ve let her have a go at it, but this wasn’t the movies. There was no wa
y
she could take down all those zombies after one fighting lesson. “Get back inside the truck!” I yelled.

“I’m not leaving you.” She aimed and fired, letting out a round of shots, but she only managed to hit a zombie in a blue, sparkly party dress.

It threw its head to the side and let out an angry roar but didn’t drop to the ground. The thing kept coming at her, this time with more vengeance than before.

Chapter 18

Stopping near the car pileup had been a bad idea. I’d known it all along, yet we had to help the girls change their tire.
If only we’d just picked them up, squeezed them inside our Jeep, and driven away before we managed to raise half the undead population in the area.
But Nick and Lucas didn’t want to lose a good vehicle loaded with precious supplies over a simple flat tire.